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yoga asana

Malasana: How to Overcome the Struggle in the Deep Yoga Squat

how to get into garland pose deep squat butt to heels

Here’s a comprehensive guide to getting more comfortable in Malasana Plus, if you scroll down far enough, 7 Steps to Better Ankle Mobility We at Yoga Anatomy Academy love malasana and are on a mission to make this deep squat more accessible to more humans. The motivation is this: a large chunk of what we […]

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5 Actions to Get Your Foot Up Between Your Hands

stepping your foot between your hands in yoga, from downward facing dog or down dog

The Instagram is full of fluid movers, yogis who can gracefully place a foot between their hands in slow motion, usually on the way down from a single arm hand balancing feat with a glass of wine between their toes. Not a drop spilled. What is less common: actual instructions in yoga class on how […]

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How to Avoid Destroying Your Hips in Yoga

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Francesca Cervero kindly invited me to be a return guest on her podcast, The Mentor Sessions: Support and Strategy for Yoga Teachers to talk about HIPS, specifically yoga hip injuries. (If you missed the first episode on anatomy-informed yoga, you can listen here). Francesca and I both experienced major hip injuries, as in the kind […]

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Balancing the Science & the Mystery in Yoga

Teaching anatomy for yoga practitioners is about much more than relaying the nuts and bolts (muscles and bones). In order to understand anatomy in the context of the vastness of yoga, we must understand how yoga, yoga classes, and yoga teaching influence bodies and fit in to a larger conversation about the intersection of yoga […]

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Yoga Anatomy to the People: a Manifesto

In case you haven’t noticed, yoga is undergoing a revolution. This revolution is a natural ricochet from dominant paradigms of physical asana practice that have included: 1) overly prescriptive alignment and/or 2) lack of alignment plus excess repetition, but that 3) in nearly all cases discouraged critical thinking, deviation from your teacher, and incorporating modern […]

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Any Yoga Pose Can Harm, Any Yoga Pose Can Heal

yoga injury, harm from yoga, is yoga good for you

One of the first principles of teaching anatomically sound asana is this: Any yoga pose can harm; Any yoga pose can heal. For example, Tadasana (Mountain Pose) can reinforce poor postural habits, or it can build strength. Headstand is likely to cause excess pressure on cervical vertebrae, but may also be a skillful way to […]

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How to Be a Mermaid: Smart Sequencing for Naginyasana

Want this sequence in a pretty, printable 1-page PDF? Click here for access.   One of the loveliest of yoga poses is Naginyasana, Mermaid pose. It’s a variation of the ever-popular “Pigeon Pose” (eka pada raja kapotasana), so Naginyasana involves deep backbending and front hip opening. Although it is challenging, it’s fairly accessible. With the right preparation […]

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On Balancing Our Shoulders in Yoga – Pulling and Posterior Chain Activation

yoga pulling

There is a conversation ruffling the feathers of the yoga world around the lack of “pulling” in yoga asana. In some instances, this topic gets mixed with talk of lack of “posterior chain” muscle utilization. Is this true? Can our beloved yoga asana be incomplete? Before diving any further, a huge assumption must be dismantled: If you look to yoga asana for […]

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